Connecting to HA ISCSI Target from vSphere

jpal · Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:34 pm

Hi,

My setup is a 2-node Windows 2012 R2 configuration. I created an HA Storage and connected to it from vSphere but for some reason the vsphere can only detect the target but not able to map it. When i add the IP Address of the 2 nodes in the iscsi initiator, it could automatically add the target name in the Static Discovery tab but after doing a storage device scan, no new devices are added to the list.

Is there something i missed here?

darklight · Thu Jul 23, 2015 8:31 am

Did you perform an "Add Datastore" routine from within VCenter? After connecting to iSCSI Datastore, you have to create a VMFS partition on it. Then it will be accessible as Datastore in ESXi.

jpal · Thu Jul 23, 2015 4:39 pm

Unfortunately, you cant add a datastore if the device is not even listed in the available devices.

Normally, you would get a new device added to your list when you add the ISCSI target but in this case, it can detect that the target is available but after it scans no new device is added. If the new device is added then you should be able to add the new datastore.

However, if i create a Storage that is not an HA or one that only resides on either node, i never get any issues at all and it could be added without a problem. This is what is puzzling me.

darklight · Fri Jul 24, 2015 8:29 am

In order to connect to an HA device, both replicas should be in synchronized state. You check it in StarWind Management Console. Also, if you point on a target there, you can see if ESXi host are really connected to that target. Maybe that helps a bit for further troubleshooting.

jpal · Fri Jul 24, 2015 5:30 pm

Both HA storage were already synchronized and looking at the Management Console ISCSI Sessions, only the other node is connected to it. I wonder if anyone had ever experienced this.

Here's a summary of what i have:
- Node1 - Windows Server 2012 R2 DataCenter
- Node2 - Windows Server 2012 R2 DataCenter
- Starwind Ver 8.0.8198
- License: Microsoft Hyper-V 2 nodes
- ISCSI Initiators - vSphere v6.0

Tests done:
- Created NON-HA storage in Node1 - vSphere connected successfully, datastore mapped
- Created NON-HA storage in Node2 - vSphere connected successfully, datastore mapped
- Created NON-HA storage in Node1, Added replication partner Node2, after synchronization is done vSphere can ping and see the target name but unable to connect. No device added after scan, no available LUN to mount.
- Created HA (clustered) storage, after synchronization is done vSphere can ping and see the target but unable to connect. No device added after scan. No available LUN to mount.

darklight · Wed Aug 05, 2015 5:13 pm

I believe I could reproduce your issue using StarWind Virtual SAN Free. The case is that you can not use the free version for such configurations that you have. You can not directly connect to SW Free HA devices from ESX. Only NFS or SMB are supported afaik

You can check it here https://www.starwindsoftware.com/techni ... ersion.pdf

Tarass (Staff) · Tue Aug 11, 2015 10:52 am

Newer version of StarWind Virtual SAN Free differs a bit from the previous ones. So please double-check its features before planning your environment. Link already provided by Darklight, thank you.